Hey, you. You there, with the camera. What’s the big idea? Taking all those pictures with the click, click, click… You’re embarrassing me. Heck, you’re embarrassing yourself. You act like you ain’t never seen a freakin’ Chevette before. I tell ya, I’ve got as much right to be here at Whole Foods as you do, Pal. After all, if I wasn’t so cheap to run, how else do you think my owner can afford to shop at this place? I might not be much to look at, but I ain’t the least reliable thing you’ve ever seen. Go on. Admit it.

I may not have ever tore up Lake Shore Drive like some of those cabs you hear about, but my standard 70-hp 1.6L four-cylinder ticker has got some life left in it, yet. It moves all 2,100 pounds of me around these parts alright with no worries. I ain’t got no Armani suit like Mr. Fancy-Schmancy BMW next to me, but when I got this new rear hatch and taillights for 1980 to match my new, squared-off front end I got the year before, I was lookin’ pretty sharp. I mean, I was no Beau Berlinetta, to be sure, but you could do worse. Now I’ve got a few dents and such. No major crash damage, or none like that. These things happen when you belong to someone with a narrow one-car garage, thick glasses, and a tendency to…let’s say, collect things in said garage.

I’m actually one of just over 261,000 of us 5-door Chevettes produced for 1980 out of about 451,000 total that year – the most popular year, ever for us ‘Vettes. There used to be so many of us running around, we used to high-five each other at stoplights at every intersection. Many of my brothers and sisters fell a long time ago, after years of thankless service. We actually aren’t bad cars. In fact, quite the opposite. Unlike the Greek tragedy-Vega that came before me, I may not have been as nice to look at, but I got the job done a helluva lot better than that pretty P.O.S. ever did. And don’t get me started on that newfangled, fancy, front-wheel-drive Citation. Whooo, boy…

Wait…where ya goin’, Kid? You walk into a grocery store parking lot, take a bunch of pictures of me like I’m some kind of zoo animal, then you just leave without so much as even waitin’ around to talk to my owner? What kind of a nut job are you, anyway? You didn’t even buy something from the store! Don’t you go posting any bad pictures of me on the internets. Go on, you car-less punk. Scram. And have a nice day.

Hysterical – great article Joseph! Mr. Chevette is still kickin after all these years!

I never realized that the production numbers were still that high for the Chevette even in 1980. I figured that they had tapered off considerably since it had been around for so many years prior. These cars provided decent economical transportation even if they were somewhat crude.

The oddest thing about driving a Chevette was the steering wheel/column. The steering wheel never felt perfectly centered. It actually leaned to the left so the steering wheel felt like it was pushed back somewhat on the left hand side. The few Chevettes I had driven over the years both had that same odd pushed back to the left steering wheel.

The off-center steering wheel has been a hallmark of more than a few GM products and, since it started with stuff like the Chevette and Cavalier, was a great indicator of how much the once mighty powerhouse corporation was beginning to fall. As bad as Chrysler and Ford’s worst products might have been, they at least always managed to get the damn steering wheel centered properly in the interior. If a car company can’t even get something as rudimentary as the steering wheel location right, what else can’t they get right?

Even today, the latest generation GM pickups have a steering wheel that isn’t centered directly in front of the driver! How something like that can occur in this day and age (and in one of their best-selling, highest-profit vehicles, to boot) is simply beyond my ability to understand.

Agreed – that always irritated the snot out of me. It was most pronounced to me in my 84 Olds 98 – when the big C body car can’t give you a steering wheel that is squared up with the driver, something is wrong.

GM really does have its share of oddities! And JP – what about the speedometer in the full-sized Olds – I couldn’t stand how they were never straight!

Tommy T

Posted May 4, 2016 at 10:47 AM

I was about to wonder where that speedo was in the option packages to avoid the girly 85mph speedo, but I see its a metric speedo. I’ve seen the federal speedo needle disappear a few times on road trips with Dad in our 84 88.

When I gave up on BMWs in the early 2000s, they still hadn’t bothered to start making 3 series cars where the right side of the steering wheel wasn’t closer to the driver than the left side of the steering wheel.

But you triggered a long repressed memory. A college mate had one of these. While he no longer had it, every time he saw one he was compelled to tell some story about having lost his virginity in his Chevette. I was always skeptical on a number of levels.

When I had my Chevette in high school one of the girls from work looked at it. She said the back seat was “too small to have any fun in”.
She got real quiet (and red) when I dropped the back seat flat.

You remind me of a repressed Chevette memory of my own. In law school, I was casual friends with a guy who was really into appearance. His hair was always right, his clothes were always stylish. And then one day I saw that he drove . . . a Chevette. It was so not the look he was going for.

this article sums the chevette up perfectly. a close friend of mine growing up in new jersey was embarrassed when his mom got a gen one in the malaise era but when i visited them in arizona ten years later, there it was in the driveway as the third car beater running just fine after having been used as the first car for all three kids and towing a trailer to the local flea market every saturday.

Neat story Joseph. When one of the contributers here let’s it fly about a car he hates. It is a good thing that the car doesn’t stand up for itself the way you have this Chevette doing. Next time there is deadly sin article, this would be a great way to offer a counterpoint.

Gotta admit, this is the first time I’ve every really appreciated a Chevette. Fantastic juxtaposition and a fun write-up. Years ago I had a similarly humble and very rusty Toyota truck, and I used to take great pleasure as a young professor in parking it in my college’s faculty parking lot next to the president’s BMW!

My first experience driving a small car. Dad brought it home as a rental and let me drive it. On the twisty back roads of PA it was a revelation compared to the 73 Montego or the 67 Polara that I had experienced so far.

When I got a paying job, acquiring a 76 Rabbit was first priority, thanks to the insight gained from a few hours with a rental Chevette. (There’s a virginity vs committed relationship joke in there somewhere.)

You don’t see many Chevettes these days; I had no idea so many of them were produced (just in that one year or overall). I saw one a few weeks ago and also found it a photo-worthy proposition! It didn’t talk to me, though, sadly.

It’s a good thing it was a Chevette that spoke to you though. If it had been a Civic, it probably would have spoken in Japanese.

There were essentially three families of vehicle in my high school student parking lot, ca 1983-86: Fox body mustangs from ’79 up, Camaro/Firebirds (of all generations right up to a couple ’86’s driven by the snob brigade), and Chevettes. Lots of Chevettes. And they ran. And they stood up to abuse. Lots of abuse. They weren’t pretty, they weren’t fast, they handled like shit, but they were the cars that gave lifts to the guy whose Mustang or Camaro didn’t start that day. Respect the ‘Vette!

Nice story Joseph. I hope this car’s owner purposefully parks next to the fanciest car in the parking lot. I always try to park my ’83 Toyota Pickup in the shadow of the biggest truck in the lot. It’s funny to provide an obvious contrast for everyone.

I’ll also echo the comment that there aren’t many Chevettes around anymore. My small town’s down to it’s last Chevette which appears to be the same year. It’s light blue and in reasonably decent shape, very little rust or dents. I’ve consistently seen it driven by a little old lady for the last decade but now there’s a teenage guy behind the wheel. I suspect it’s days are numbered, but I could be wrong.

A great article, Joseph! And a great find, as I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen ANY Chevette on the road around here.

At the recent Spring Carlisle Show, I picked up a mint sales brochure on the 1980 Chevette for a whopping $1. It reminded me of how popular these cars were at that time. If I recall correctly, the Chevette was America’s best-selling car of 1980, or at least in the top three. The “butt lift” for that year did make the car look more substantial.

The Chevette wasn’t a bad car for its intended purpose when it debuted for the 1976 model year, but GM let it linger on for far too long. It was still in production through December 1986 in this country! By that point, it had been hopelessly outclassed by the Honda Civic, Nissan Sentra and Toyota Corolla, not to mention the Ford Escort.

I remember an issue of Car and Driver that featured a story on third-world cars. This was before Chevette production had ceased, and the magazine included the Chevette on the list.

I used to see a 4 door Chevette parked at a Target in my area but haven’t seen it the last few times I was there.
It’s a shame Chevrolet never invested in a real performance model (wasn’t there a Chevette Rally?), a 2 door model with the 1.8 or 2 liter OHC engine from the Sunbird would have been interesting.

I remember the first time I saw a 1980 Chevette. I was only 7 yrs old. I found it quite attractive. Better looking than anything Toyota, or Datsun was offering at the time. Whether it was the right car for the time, I don’t know. But I would’ve preferred this over anything Japan was offering at that time.

I actually spotted this one from the L on a Friday after work, and it indeed “spoke” to me, so I had to photograph it. I wonder what chores it’s up to today.

My parents and grandparents used to tell me how I’d sit in front of the picture window in my folks’ living room which faced the intersection, and play “count the Chevette” when I was a young kid. I’m sure they never got tired of hearing that! LOL

Yes the T-1000. About a month ago I was driving home from work and came across a T-1000 on highway 41 between Appleton and Green Bay! It was even passing cars. Must have been going at least 75mph. Didn’t look like the car was struggling to keep that speed either. Younger guy was driving it with window down on a rare warm spring day. There’s also a white Chevette down the street from my work. Not bad shape, but don’t know if it runs. There’s also a Granada, Ford van, etc in the yard.

I’ve only ridden in a Chevette once — in about 1990 and it was a ‘Vette from about 1980 in this same brown color. The car wasn’t nearly as bad as I had expected it to be — granted that was an easy expectation to exceed, but still… it wasn’t that bad. But at the same time I remember thinking to myself that this was a car I’d never, ever consider buying.

What amazes me most about the Chevette is that they were made virtually unaltered through 1987 – the car world had changed so much, but this car managed to hang on.

They actually built these in South America until 1998 !!!! Though some of the models had the Chevy front end, with some of the same engines, while some used the “other” front clip used everywhere from Germany to Japan.
There were also station wagon and pickup truck body styles offered in other countries.

I have a feeling the weren’t too often “little-old lady” or “retired couple” cars, and so most were purchased to be driven regularly. (Some CC-er put that metric into my head a while back—some common “survivor” cars are ones couples bought as their retirement present to themselves)

I was surprised by the Chevette’s roominess (better than my Pinto, for sure): a musician-couple I knew could get their cello *and* String Bass in there–reminds me of another couple who bought a Rabbit ’cause it fit their String Bass + harp (and the two of them, of course).

My mother used to own a red 1980 Chevette 5 door and I remember that car was dangerously slow (it had the automatic transmission) and I remember not liking that car because of the low grade vinyl seats and me not liking the smaller cars, it was a reliable car but it struggled on the highways.

After the most recent expensive car repair I was lamenting how much I missed my Chevette(s) – yes, I owned more than one mea culpa – and how I could fix anything on them dirt cheep. So what appears just up the street from my house? This one listed as “an easy restoration” asking $1,600.00. I may miss mine, but I’d never spend that money to have the opportunity to weld a floor in…again.

I think a lot of visual (and physical) mass is added by the 5 MPH bumpers, which the Brazilian cars were not saddled with. Also, while the frontal treatment of the beige car is very similar to what the US cars had pre-1979, ours never had quite the same rear-end design as the brown car in your post.

I can’t think of one car I despise more than the Chevette (and T1000/Acadian), if I had my way every example still in existence would be gathered up and shredded. The worst possible excuse for a motor vehicle ever. And yes, worse than a Yugo.

I remember these well ~ hated when new although they sold like hot cakes .
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My big Sister bought a red four door new in….1979 (?) .
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They were like RoadRoaches (TM) for a long time , cheap and cheerful , hard to kill if crude and slow .
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As long as GM made $ selling and Servicing them , they should have been produced .
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-Nate

CR tested a diesel Chevette and Rabbit together. The VW was the hot rod, the Chevette couldn’t hit 60 in the distance they had available for the brake tests. Best it would do was 58. But they said that was fast enough to ferret out any braking problems.

Oh, the Chevette. 1980 was a dark year. The second oil crisis had just hit, the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, Three mile island had just happened, Carter was busy being weak, interest rates, unemployment, and inflation had hit double digits, and everything was earth toned and avocado green and harvest gold. Ugh.

The Chevette, as is often remarked, began life in 1976 but didn’t actually hit its stride until 1979 due to the oil crisis. Consider its 1980 competition. Ford didn’t have the Escort yet and had the Pinto, which was much older than the Chevette, more expensive, and smaller inside. The Monza was on its way out and was a worse car to begin with. Chrysler had the Omnirizon but an abysmal reputation for quality from the Aspen/Volare and R bodies and dim hopes for survival. Honda had expensive, tiny Civics and expensive, slightly less tiny Accords, and was something of a curiosity in many places; Toyota had the Corolla which was much more expensive than the Chevette; Datsun had the 210, again, much more expensive than the Chevette and Japanese cars weren’t common in many places yet, and then there were some real curiosities like the Fiat Strada and Renault LeCar and Mazda GLC. The Chevette wasn’t a GOOD car but the best of a bad lot. Nothing was really very good in 1980.

We had an 81 Spirit, nee Gremlin, and the Chevette was a much better car. The Chevette was light, economical, and space efficient in a way that the Spirit could never be. The Spirit was nicely finished and had some luxurious elements to it, but didn’t fulfill its basic mission.

Really, the styling after 35 years has held up well and I bet it will soldier on long after the BMW next to it is shredded into Chinese washing machines.

Best of a bad lot is stretching it quite a bit. The Accord, 210, and Corolla may have been pricier, but it’s a “you get what you pay for” situation. They were worth the extra change in terms of refinement and quality. If (and it is a bit of a big “if”) you didn’t live in an area that was prone to early rust–that’s a spot where the imports hadn’t yet caught up to the domestics. But in areas that aren’t rust-prone, and for the buyer who was willing to take a chance on one of them “furrin” cars, it seems to me like a worthwhile investment.

And the GLC a curiosity? Far from it. The GLC moniker was appropriate–they were indeed Good Little Cars. I don’t know much about Mazda’s dealer network in the late 70’s but I know the GLC was no joke. My grandmother owned a ’79 GLC wagon for 14 years, and it still looked and ran like new when she traded it on a ’93 Protege.

The Honda Civic was all-new for 1980, and larger than the previous generation. And it was in no way a bad car.

The main hurdle was price – during this era, if the Honda dealer deigned to sell you a Civic at the sticker price, without requiring you to buy $100 floor mats and a $200 wax job, you got a great deal. Demand for Hondas easily outstripped the supply in the early 1980s.

As Chris M. notes, the Chevette did have better rust resistance than the Honda.

I have fond memories of these cars. When I was a kid our family “runaround” cars were always slant six Darts and Valiants. in the 80’s that got switched to Chevettes and Acadians/Canadians.They were built the same. Slow,boring and indestructible!
And B.T.W…I can’t comment on any romantic escapades in a Chevette, but I will admit to one night when I was a teenager in my Pinto hatchback that proved when one is determined…..;)

Tom C: “I never realized that the production numbers were still that high for the Chevette even in 1980. I figured that they had tapered off considerably since it had been around for so many years prior. ”

As dated as the design may have already seemed in 1980, the Chevette was only in its fifth model year, and only its third offering the longer-wheelbase four-door body style. Far from tapering off, Chevette sales were just reaching their peak.

Chris M.: “You don’t see many Chevettes these days; I had no idea so many of them were produced (just in that one year or overall).”

The Chevette’s sales heyday was the four model years from 1978 to 1981, when it was Chevrolet’s primary subcompact product. As others have already noted, the peak years were 1980-81, due to the effects of the 1979 oil crisis. Bear in mind that in the late ’70s or early ’80s, the domestic manufacturers held a much larger share of the market than they do today – there were a lot more American consumers back then who just reflexively shopped the domestics, whether due to patriotism or inertia – and that the Chevette was GM’s main product in this segment, which typically generated a high volume of sales due to low price and high fuel economy. Against that backdrop, it’s not surprising that it sold in big numbers.

Before 1978, the Vega held the role of Chevrolet’s primary subcompact product, but the Chevette took over for ’78 – and got a sales boost to match – due to the introduction of the four-door body style. With the Chevette now front and center, Chevy folded the aging, outdated Vega into the Monza line. The Chevette lost its status as Chevrolet’s primary subcompact product after 1981 due to the introduction of the new FWD J-body Cavalier. From ’82 onward, the Chevette was relegated to being a bottom-end budget model, no longer Chevrolet’s main focus in the small car segment. After Chevrolet began its captive import program in 1985, the Chevette arguably served no discernible purpose at all, but GM seems to have decided to keep building them for as long as they could sell enough to turn a profit.

I’m amazed at how well some of these have held up. Although my only (brief) experience riding in one did NOT impress me. AT all. Rough, noisy, and cheap interior.

When I moved to Michigan in the early 90’s, there was one in the neighborhood that looked stock (except for larger custom wheels). Oh, and the molded in cowl hood scoop that had subtle V-6 logos on it…